Moralia in Job 1129

V. 14.—Their soul shall die in a tempest. 62. Hypocrites die in a sudden tempest.—For they seemed to live tranquilly, since they cared to rejoice in the praise of holiness. But their soul dies in a sudden tempest, which rejoiced in the most evil tranquillity of human praise. Very often a sudden, unlooked-for tempest changes all that the clear air flatteringly promised: and the peril cannot be avoided, precisely because it could not be foreseen. Whence dissemblers, who neglect the guardianship of their own life, are said to die in a tempest. For hence a sudden whirlwind of inward striking casts out those whom the arrogance of external favor exalts; and while they embrace in praise what they are not, they suddenly find in vengeance what they are.

But well is it said through Solomon: 'As silver is tried in the smelting-pot, and gold in the furnace, so a man is tried by the mouth of him that praises' (Prov. 27:21). For a man's own praise torments the just, exalts the wicked. But the just, while it torments, it purges; the wicked, while it gladdens, it shows to be reprobate. For these are fed by their own praise, because they seek not the glory of their Author. But those who seek the glory of their Author are tormented by their own praise, lest there be not within what is spoken without; lest, if there be even what is spoken, before the eyes of God it be emptied by those very favors; lest human praise soften the strength of the mind, and lay it low in delight of itself; and lest what ought to be a help toward increasing the work should now be the recompense of the labor.

But when they perceive that their praises tend to the praise of God, they even desirably embrace them. For it is written: 'Let them see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven' (Matt. 5:16). They make themselves a way, therefore, to men, whenever they show in themselves something whereby God may be known, because they strive not to fix human praise upon themselves, but seek that it pass through them, as through intermediaries, to the glory of the Author. But the arrogant prostitute their soft hearts to human praises, because they are corrupted by love of themselves. Of whom it is said elsewhere: 'Men shall be lovers of themselves' (2 Tim. 3:2). And fittingly here concerning this their corruption it is subjoined: